Not when you have the kind of impact that Kobe Bryant has. Not when you’re 35 years old and you’ve been pushing your body for months to do the unthinkable. Not when you’re only in your second game back from a devastating, career-altering injury and you completely blow all of the doubters’ minds.

OK, so maybe unlike Vino, dunking doesn’t necessarily get better with age. So what if it won’t crack the ultimate countdown at the Dunk HQas one of the top dunks of the season. So what it lacked some of the bounce, flash and finish that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from Kobe ever since he stole the show as a teen at the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest. What this does show is Kobe, repaired Achilles’ tendon and all, still has the fire, competitiveness and ability to pull off the unthinkable. And to do so in such short time, it begs the question: What else will Kobe do to surprise us?

Kobe may not be shocked at all by his feat, but one person who probably didn’t see this one coming is P.J. Tucker, the defender Kobe blew by for the jam. Remember, this is still “The Mamba”. This is just what Kobe does.

Which makes his 20 pts and this dunk even more impressive for a guy who looked like that. It’s only Kobe’s second game back from a career ending injury. From playing almost zero basketball for months to playing in the NBA with healthy, well conditioned athletes. Quit hating and give credit where it’s due.

No disrespect to Kobe, but the dunk was barely that. Sure, he dunked which was good and all due to the injury he’d just came back from… but he really had to strain to get it up there. Hopefully he didn’t put too much force on his Achilles. If he’s slower in their next game against SAC, then I’d say blame the dunk. If he push himself too early he may get injured like D. Rose.

So my advice would be, take it easy, and let your body get back into tip-top shape before going for the big dunks.

You may say it wasn’t a great dunk and big deal and all, but this would have been a huge mental and emotional deal for Kobe. To know that you can attempt to explode to the rim and not have your achilles blow out is a big deal. Good on him!